Zeke - At Pain In The Grass

It was the summer of 1997, and I just moved to Seattle from the San Francisco Bay Area. Prior to moving to Seattle, I was playing in a band called COOKiE. We played in Seattle a few times before moving there. During that time, we made lots of friends with other bands in the local music scene. One of those bands happened to be Zeke, a hardcore punk rock band that was on the rise nationally. I had the summer off, and I was looking to enhance my knowledge of the film making process, and to get some real world experience shooting sync sound. I decided to shoot one of the Pain In The Grass concerts in 16mm. I chose one of my favorite bands Zeke, partly because I kind of knew them, and partly because they were very popular at the time, having just inked a deal with Epitaph records. Pain In The Grass, was a Seattle tradition for many years, pioneered by rock icon Jeff Gilbert. The concert series ran every summer, and featured many of Seattle biggest bands, like Pearl Jam, Candle Box, Super Suckers, Mud Honey, Presidents, Fastbacks, and eventually my band COOKiE. I did some research, figured out what kind of equipment I needed to rent, what film stock to shoot on, and what type of crew I needed to hire. I found a producer to finance the shoot, and a local non-profit film school, called Wiggly World Studios, to help me find crew members. I rented a professional battery powered Bolex camera, hired an assistant camera man to help load magazines, and take light readings, a production assistant to clap the electronic time code slate, and a sound crew to capture the audio. The shoot went relatively smoothly. I had the film sent to a local lab for processing. I hired a professional colorist to adjust the overall look of the film, and transfer it to video. I did all of the post production work, including editing, motion graphics for the title sequence and closing credits, using Apple computers, and mostly software from Adobe. The final product is a 10 minute rock-u-mentary, that captures the band at their peak, and really gives you a feel for what it was like to be at one of the Pain In The Grass shows. Enjoy! JayMe LayMe